Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Races Offering Women's Shirts

I can't figure out a couple of things: 1) Why, when races only gave out cotton T-shirts, did the shirts fit me? 2) When the majority of people who enter races is female, why do races only offer men's garments? (One race I'm aware of has over 70% female participants.) 3) Why do men's technical shirts run so much larger than the old-fashioned cotton?

The new trend is to call the technical shirts "unisex," but basically that just means they are men's shirts.

But some race directors are getting the hint! There are a couple of races that are starting to offer women's sizes in race shirts!

The Capital City Half Marathon in Columbus, OH this May now offers women's shirts. This is a John Bingham race, and from what I can gather, this is the first year for women's sizes. The breakdown of entrants averages 60% female.

Other races offering women's sizes:- The Columbus Marathon has offered technical shirts in women's sizes for several years.- The Nike Women's Marathon, CA.- The Leading Ladies Marathon, SD.- I assume the MORE Marathon, NYC, does, too.

Anyone know of other races offering women's shirts? Let's get the word out!

Just read an e-mail from a race that is 70% female explaining that he would have to offer too many different sizes if he also offered women's sizes. His solution was XS "unisex" shirts. Though that is better than nothing (the smalls are HUGE) I think you need to cater to your participants.